Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
its needs; by being involved with the development, the orga-
nization has further control over the results; and the
organization has more flexibility in making changes. The
disadvantages include the following: It is likely to take longer
and cost more to develop, the in-house staff will be hard
pressed to provide ongoing support and maintenance, and
there is a greater risk that the software features will not work
as expected or that other performance problems will occur.
Purchasing off-the-shelf software has many advantages.
The initial cost is lower, there is a lower risk that the software
will fail to work as expected, and the software is likely to be
of higher quality than proprietary software. Some disadvan-
tages are that the organization might pay for features it does
not need, the software might lack important features requir-
ing expensive customization, and the system might require
process reengineering.
Some organizations have taken a third approach—
customizing software packages. This approach usually
involves a mixture of the preceding advantages and disad-
vantages and must be carefully managed.
An application service provider (ASP) is a company that
can provide the software, support, and computer hardware on
which to run the software from the user's facilities over a
network. ASPs customize off-the-shelf software on contract
and speed deployment of new applications while helping IS
managers avoid implementation headaches. Use of ASPs
reduces the need for many skilled IS staff members and also
lowers a project's start-up expenses. Software as a service
(SaaS) allows businesses to subscribe to Web-delivered busi-
ness application software by paying a monthly service charge
or a per-use fee.
Although hundreds of computer applications can help
people at school, home, and work, the primary applications
are word processing, spreadsheet analysis, database, graph-
ics, and online services. A software suite, such as SmartSuite,
WordPerfect, StarOffice, or Office, offers a collection of pow-
erful programs.
computers were programmed in machine language, and the
second generation of languages used assembly languages.
The third generation consists of many high-level program-
ming languages that use English-like statements and com-
mands. They also must be converted to machine language by
special software called a compiler, and include BASIC,
COBOL, FORTRAN, and others. Fourth-generation languages
include database and query languages such as SQL.
Fifth-generation programming languages combine rules-
based code generation, component management, visual pro-
gramming techniques, reuse management, and other
advances. Visual and object-oriented programming lan-
guages—such as Smalltalk, C++, and Java—use groups of
related data, instructions, and procedures called objects,
which serve as reusable modules in various programs. These
languages can reduce program development and testing
time. Java can be used to develop applications on the Internet.
Principle
The software industry continues to undergo constant
change; users need to be aware of recent trends and
issues to be effective in their business and personal
life.
Software bugs, software licensing and copyrighting, open-
source software, shareware and freeware, multiorganiza-
tional software development, software upgrades, and global
software support are all important software issues and
trends.
A software bug is a defect in a computer program that
keeps it from performing in the manner intended. Software
bugs are common, even in key pieces of business software.
Open-source software is software that is freely available
to anyone in a form that can be easily modified. Open-source
software development and maintenance is a collaborative
process, with developers around the world using the Internet
to keep in close contact via e-mail and to download and submit
new software. Shareware and freeware can reduce the cost
of software, but sometimes they might not be as powerful as
commercial software. Also, their source code usually cannot
be modified.
Multiorganizational software development is the process
of extending software development beyond a single organi-
zation by finding others who share the same business prob-
lem and involving them in a common development effort.
Software upgrades are an important source of increased
revenue for software manufacturers and can provide useful
new functionality and improved quality for software users.
Global software support is an important consideration for
large, global companies putting together standardized, com-
pany-wide systems. A common solution is outsourcing global
support to one or more third-party software distributors.
Principle
Organizations should choose a programming lan-
guage whose functional characteristics are appropri-
ate for the task at hand, considering the skills and
experience of the programming staff.
All software programs are written in coding schemes called
programming languages, which provide instructions to a
computer to perform some processing activity. The several
classes of programming languages include machine, assem-
bly, high-level, query and database, object-oriented, and
visual programming languages.
Programming languages have changed since their initial
development in the early 1950s. In the first generation,
